


An Introduction to Modern Magical Theory

by Anonymous



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, In-Universe Meta, Incantations, Languages and Linguistics, Magic, textbooks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 05:00:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30134352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Being the opening section of a new textbook, written by Aelir fa Noren and published in 15e26.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4
Collections: Worldbuilding Exchange 2021





	An Introduction to Modern Magical Theory

**Author's Note:**

  * For [muggle95](https://archiveofourown.org/users/muggle95/gifts).



> Dates in this world are not written the way we write them in English; they come in two forms.  
> Specific years are referred to in the form of " _n_ e _k_ " and should be read as "the _k_ th year of the _n_ th imperial era."  
> Eras are written as " _n_ e" and should be read as "the _n_ th imperial era."

An Introduction to Modern Magical Theory

Part One: The Medium of Language

_Enka na tamo, en tima na mor_

_Enka na tamo, mén maré saror_

_A traditional Taural luck charm, with a classical rhyme and meter_

In the Hainur magical tradition, which dominates from the chilly southern tundra to the shores of the Indigo Sea but sees some use in every corner of the world, spells have long been cast with incantations in the classical language Xhanadul. East of the Mountains of Morning, the primary language of incantations is Ammata, while the Sundrowned Isles in the western ocean use Leumaën. There are many more incantation languages in the world, but these three are by far the most prominent.

Traditional theory texts, especially those dating from before the reign of Empress Vrealle, fourteenth of her line, peacefully may she rest, will typically proclaim that at least Xhanadul, and possibly Ammata and Leumaën as well, are intrinsically magical languages, which is why they are so well-suited to spellcasting. However, it has since been found that there is not an intrinsic connection between the phonological forms and syntactical and morphological structures of any language and the magic that may be cast using it for the incantation. As such, this section is primarily focused on the ways in which incantations are used to channel an intended magical effect.

1.1 Incantations

Formal incantations are the primary way in which typical mages interact with magic on a day-to-day basis. They can create a wide array of effects and consist of an utterance of a previously designed sequence of morphemes in whatever language is being used as the incantation medium.

Informal incantations, on the other hand, are created on the fly by a mage already familiar with the language they are using. They are often longer, clunkier, and less effective than formal incantations, but have been observed to work very well; a well-crafted informal incantation can become a formal one, if its crafter chooses to make it so.

While incantations have historically been lauded as carrying power within themselves, the opinion both of this text and of all modern magical theorists of good reputation is that the effect of a spell results from what the mage believes will happen and intends to make happen, rather than the literal meaning of the utterance. In other words, the fundamental proposition of modern magical theory as it pertains to incantations is this: the incantation focuses the mind, and  _ the mind focuses the magic. _

1.1.1 Incantations in Xhanadul

Formal incantations in Xhanadul were traditionally in the form of strictly metered rhyming poems, although modern incantations are often found in shorter forms; as the most isolated of the countries which follow the Hainur tradition, the incantations used in Taür, such as the one at the start of this section, exemplify this the best. Even modern incantations retain some of this rhythm, as it is the most familiar pattern for classically educated mages of the Hainur tradition to speak in. However, modern designs rarely rhyme, except by coincidence.

Informal incantations are rare in Xhanadul, but they are becoming more common. Prior to research done in 14e, teaching Xhanadul as a language to be spoken was considered far too much of a risk to be acceptable as common practice, as a mage who was not exceptionally careful to control their magic could accidentally cause many magical effects by speaking casually in an intrinsically magical language. This has led to Xhanadul being a functionally dead language, moreso even than most purely liturgical languages; after all, liturgical languages are still taught as  _ languages _ , whereas Xhanadul incantations have traditionally been taught as strings of phonemes, divorced from meaning, which are expected to cause a certain effect.

The recent reconstruction of Xhanadul and it being taught as a  _ language  _ and not merely a spell medium in recent years has led to a remarkable increase in the precision with which mages trained under the new system can use their magic. This is observed even when they are working with old formal incantations; such incantations are much easier to adjust on the fly when one actually knows the language, and even when no adjustment has been done, the effects are still more precise than what was typically achieved by mages of previous eras.

1.1.2 Incantations in Ammata

The line between formal and informal incantations in Ammata has, historically, been much blurrier than the division in Xhanadul. While no one nowadays uses Ammata as a vernacular, many of the nations east of the Mountains of Morning have a longstanding tradition of spellcrafters’ duels.

A spellcrafters’ duel is not really a duel, in the strict combat sense of the word; rather, it is a competition between spellcrafters, to come up with and refine informal incantations on the fly. Such duels are only possible if the participants are familiar with the language outside of formal incantations. For example, the Hainur tradition does not lend itself well to spellcrafters’ duels. Ammata, on the other hand, is taught as an academic language, and students therefore read and write the language, even if they do not speak it in everyday life. 

Unlike Xhanadul, traditional incantations in Ammata do not rhyme, nor is their rhythm based on the number of syllables. Rather, the traditional structure of formal incantations, as well as well-crafted duel incantations, is based around morae and tone. These two factors make it a difficult language to learn for followers of the Hainur tradition, especially if they intend to use formal incantations; most languages found to the west of the Mountains of Morning are not tonal languages, nor do they have an explicit notion of morae.

1.1.3 Incantations in Leumaën

Of the three major incantation languages, Leumaën is the only one which is regularly used in its spoken form outside of spellwork, being the lingua franca of the Sundrowned Isles. The Isles are somewhat remote, even from each other; as such, the dialects of the myriad islands diverge sharply, even when they originated as the same language. Naturally, this makes communication between islands rather difficult at times, so Common Leumaën is used.

Perhaps this makes it seem that Leumaën should have hardly any barriers between its formal and informal incantations, but this is not the case. Formal incantations in Leumaën are set in a strict meter and rhyme scheme, without any flexibility being permitted; they are also in High Leumaën rather than Common Leumaën. This is an older form of the language, one which is not used as a vernacular. While Common Leumaën and High Leumaën are mutually comprehensible and there is no strict magical reason for informal incantations to be spoken in one or the other, there is a strong taboo against the use of informal incantations of any sort. As such, the Sundrowned Isles are perhaps one of the least likely places for informal incantations to be observed in use, unprompted by outside forces.

1.1.4 Vernacular Incantations

Historically, vernacular incantations have been used primarily by children and magical isolates — that is, both individuals who are disconnected from their society’s magical traditions and whole societies which are disconnected from any major magical tradition. The latter are rarer nowadays than they once were; the Hainur tradition has spread far, and it does not approve of vernacular incantations. However, the Tsengam people, who live to the west of the Indigo Sea, are a contemporary case of a tradition of vernacular incantations which has been ongoing for more than a thousand years.

For the Tsengam, incantations are actually fairly similar to how they are for traditions which use non-vernacular incantation languages. There are formal incantations, in a fairly rigid style, and informal ones, some of which mimic the formal style and some of which are almost completely lacking in structure. This is generally the case for societies which are, collectively, magical isolates, but it is not the case for individuals or children.

Individual magical isolate adults who use vernacular incantations tend to do so in highly idiosyncratic ways. Sometimes this is the result of a very minor tradition, in which case the student will typically pick up their teacher’s patterns, but if it is not then the structure which the incantations take is entirely up to the mage. Following poetic forms is not uncommon, but such forms are rarely strict, and there are also cases of entirely self-taught mages who use ordinary phrases for their spells, as well as more unusual things —in 13e there was a case study reported of a mountain mage who used stories as metaphors for her incantations, and in 15e12 a mathematics student without any magical education created a set of functional incantations using a framework of mathematical phrasing.

Children who use vernacular incantations are about as idiosyncratic as other individual magical isolates, but are less systematic; it is very rare for children in mainstream magical traditions to use formal vernacular incantations. More often, their vernacular incantations are entirely improvised, and even when they are not, the children rarely use them frequently enough to fully recall them repeatedly, as they must in order to formalize them.

**Author's Note:**

> I set out at the start of this project to write about an intrinsically magical language. Then my linguistics brain took over and would not stop going on about _but language is arbitrary so intrinsically magical human languages do not make any sense unless we say that they fundamentally change how languages work on a structural level which is a Lot to get into in only a couple months,_ so. here we are. I hope you enjoyed this little excerpt!


End file.
